As a songwriter, Allan Boothe has always had a vulnerability about him. As a performer, he more frequently comes across as a bundle of nerves than a rock star. On record, he has a way of revealing so much of himself in such a melancholy way - even as he's surrounded by sunny, chugging guitars and bright percussion. He's a reluctant singer, an unlikely frontman, with an unmistakable sound. Even though his band, Humble Cub, has a new album that was mastered in LA by someone who most recently worked with No Doubt (among other big name pop acts), Allan Boothe will always quintessentially, idiosyncratically, be like Allan Boothe.
Humble Cub's last album, back in 2010, concerned itself with the beach, Five Mile Drive, and the sensation of hanging onto youth and relationships in long car rides and buzzed hikes. Telegram From Your Future Life, the band's latest, is conversely all about living, working and playing music in downtown Tacoma - an urban wood not entirely dissimilar from the beach that so enamored Boothe back in 2010.
THE SPACE, W/ ROSWELL, FRIDAY, DEC. 28, 7:30 P.M., ALL AGES, $5, 729 COURT C, TACOMA
NEW FRONTIER LOUNGE, W/ DEATH BY STARS, OH DEAR!, SATURDAY, DEC. 29, 9 P.M., COVER TBA, 301 E. 25TH ST., TACOMA, 253.572.4020
LINK: The return of Roswell